Metal jewelry made for fashion and trends is best made with sterling silver or brass. What is the difference between brass and sterling? First you must know what alloy is. Alloy is made by combining two metals like sterling silver which is the combination of copper and silver. 2 Metals combination is called binary alloys.Pure silver melts at 1640 degrees Fahrenheit but the sterling silver melts at 100mdegree lesser. Through annealing the hardened metal is used for making jewelry.
Metal jewelry made for fashion and trends is best made with sterling silver or brass. What is the difference between brass and sterling? And what is an alloy? It is important for you to learn some main details about the characteristics of these metals particularly if you are going to make jewelry with it.
First you must know what alloy is. Alloy is made by combining two metals like sterling silver which is the combination of copper and silver. 2 Metals combination is called binary alloys. Another combination is obtained by mixing 3 different metals like 14 karat gold in which gold, silver and copper are mixed together and this is called a ternary alloy. There are other alloys too in which 4 or 5 metals are mixed together to get a new. A 4 metal alloy is called quaternary alloy and a 5 metal alloy is named quandary alloy.
Sterling silver is an alloy of silver and copper. It is created by combining .925 silver and .725 parts of pure copper. You may have heard about Mexican silver. This is slightly different from the other silver of same level. The reason is that the amount of silver added in this type of silver is .950 and other parts are of copper. These silvers of both kinds are vulnerable to oxidation during heating process. Usually the alloy form which is sterling silver responds faster to oxidation. Meanwhile pure metal like silver responds to heat slower. A sulfide film develops on the surface of metal. The other oxides that are also produced by the silver are cuprous and cupric; and these reflect presence of copper I n the metal mixture.
Pure silver melts at 1640 degrees Fahrenheit but the sterling silver melts at 100mdegree lesser. Through annealing the hardened metal is used for making jewelry.
Brass is a combination of copper and zinc in which the percentage of zinc is between 10 to 40 depending on the hardness required of the metal. Though hard but brass is malleable. The melting point of brass is from 1600 to 1849 degrees Fahrenheit.
Inexpensive jewelry is made of copper. Trophies are commonly made with it. Price of pure silver and gold is pretty high to be used in trophies.
For making charms, coin pendants and other common ornaments you can use any metal according to the budget available. If you continue with jewelry designing job, you can create great designs. In case you are buying jewelry and find some pieces extraordinarily expensive, you can order and customers make a jewelry piece according to your needs and budget. This is possible when you understand the properties of your chosen metal.
Article Tags: Sterling Silver, Making Jewelry
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